The tastes of Rome

Our latest little trip away was to Rome. It's been years since I ventured there, and husband has never been. Perhaps not the trip of a lifetime, but a fun time away with lots to see and do.

Naturally one of the best parts of going to Italy is the food and wine. I was so excited about having the opportunity to gorge on pizza and pasta, and enjoy some of the flavours of old world reds and whites. A real opportunity to discover some new favourites awaited.

This is the first time we've been to Italy since becoming a little bit more knowledgeable about wine, and we were looking forward to expanding our horizons somewhat beyond your bog standard pinot grigio.  We managed to restrain ourselves from drinking too many bottles a day, but we managed to get through a fair few bottles of pretty decent plonk - so I thought I'd tell you about them.

One of the nicer wines we had was a pecorino from Abruzzo, whilst eating a seafood dinner in Anzio (a small seaside town an hour from Rome). We tend to prefer a dry white, and this was lovely - quite light on the palate - and very accommodating with fish. Very convenient as this dinner was a series of freshly caught fish dishes - the restaurant chefs go and pick up all and any fish that is too small to be sold at auction each day, then compile their menu. This style of cooking is apparently called la mazzamma. We were treated to a range of delights: tuna, octopus, mullet, cod, mackerel...all delicious! The second of three courses was an astoundingly big plate of pasta with squid, which was easily my favourite. And don't forget that wonderful, fresh bread to go with it all!

A selection of fishy delights

The best spaghetti

If you're ever in Anzio, do go visit La fraschetta del mare, you won't be disappointed. And leave a tip, so that the cashier calls out Tips guys! and the whole restaurant responds with a cheery grazie!

Enotecas were a new discovery for us on this trip. These are essentially bars with a strong wine focus, and were not disappointing. We stopped at our first little enoteca for a couple of drinks on our first night in Rome, after a tidy 29,000 steps around the various historical sites. This was a great opportunity to try some new wines, as they came by the glass, and they had an interesting little selection.

Cheerful Italians enjoying their vino and small plates

My first glass was an Inzolia, a grape I've had a few times before, most likely because it typically comes from Sicily. It's supposed to have a background nutty flavour, which I can't say came through too strongly. I preferred my second glass, a Passerina, which I was unfamiliar with. A rare but allegedly versatile grape, this was beautifully dry with clear floral back notes. The first sip took me aback, but I thoroughly enjoyed this little beaut. A must try! In the meantime, Husband was indulging in a little chianti, impeccably chosen with the wrong intentions (he loves a reference to Silence of the Lambs). This sparked a bit of debate - husband thought that chianti comes from a white grape, due to misremembering Hannibal Lector's infamous words 'I ate his liver with fava beans and a nice chianti' as '....chilled chianti'. Silly man, we all know that one eats red meat with a red grape as much as possible. However it is recommended that lighter bodied reds such as chianti are served slightly chilled, so perhaps not out of the realm of possibility that people mistook 'nice' for 'chilled'.

Later that night we went for dinner at a recommendation of mum's: la antica boheme. Set in a nondescript part of Via Napoli, we were a little sceptical as it appeared to be completely empty at first glance. However the charming Italian waiter took us downstairs to a veritable chamber full of happy diners, with luckily a table for two waiting for us on the side. We were not disappointed that night...
Since booking our trip to Rome I had been happily anticipating chowing down on a veal steak, something that I don't really find in England and have missed greatly. To my delight, this delightful restaurant had a menu filled with traditional Italian dishes, mainly veal orientated, and I was able to order a veal sirloin. Husband opted for the rabbit dish, which meant we went for a white wine, this time choosing a Frascati.

Simple but delicious fare: veal sirloin

If you're in Rome and looking for a locally made wine, then Frascati is a good bet. Named after a town a mere 25 miles from Rome, it has been produced by the Romans for the Romans for two thousand years. Some interesting historical titbits I picked up include Frascati being the most commonly mentioned wine in Italian literature. Historically (think c. 500 years ago), producers of Frascati wine owned nearly all of the over 1000 taverns in Rome, clearly dominating the choice of delectable vinos.

This Frascati was one of the dryer varieties. As this wine is made from a grape blend, there is no typical flavour for this wine. I daresay this bottle had an underlying citrus quality, commonly contributed to by the Malvasia de Lazio grape. It went perfectly with my steak, which was also enhanced by a squeeze of lemon and some lightly fried potatoes. A top wine in a top restaurant in my opinion - I highly recommend!

We didn't spend all of this trip living in a hotel in Rome - in fact the majority of our time we spent in a flat in Anzio. Which gave us the perfect opportunity to indulge in wine and delicacies from the local shops. In particular, we were lucky to be situated around the corner from a lovely enoteca, where we were able to pick up some rather sumptuous bottles....check out husband trying to deal with the myriad of choices.

eenie, meenie, minie mo

Even more exciting, every day they host a little tasting session, where you can sit at a table and indulge in a recommended bottle of wine, with a small plate of nibbles (stizzichini). 'Small' plate indeed -  as you can see from the picture below, it's absolutely humongous! I must admit I was a little bit concerned that we were going to be charged a ridiculous price for this, but the whole session only cost a tidy 22 euro.....not bad for this easy-drinking cheeky bottle of Antica Osteria from Veneto and a decent portion of cold cuts!

A very easy drinking red

Our small plate - stizzichini

This is turning into quite a long post, so I'm going to talk about one last bottle of wine that we thoroughly enjoyed, and that was the Friuli that I bought from the same enoteca mentioned above, and enjoyed in the peace and quiet of our flat. I was quite excited about tasting a Friuli, because it's made in the north-eastern borders of Italy, close to Slovenia. I've heard great things about Slovenian wine, and as it happens, wine from the province of Fruili often takes on Germanic-Slavic influences, due to this area having been under the influence of the Austrio-Hungarian empire for a while.

The verdict? Top-notch! This wine was dry, but not crisp, because it was too light to be considered that. Backnotes of peach came through well and I thought it almost tasted slightly honeyed, although not in an overly sweet way. Another excellent choice, which leads me to my belief that it's hard to go wrong when buying and drinking wine in Italy. I haven't spoken about some of the cheaper bottles we bought (even the two euro stuff from the supermarket was very gluggable) or the house white that we consumed at a couple of pizzerias - very drinkable and very strong - but they have helped to contribute to this belief. I genuinely feel like this trip has steered me away from my preference for new world wines, and has particularly opened me up to enjoying a good red. We've only been back from Rome a few days, and already have a primittivo waiting for us in the wine rack 😉